


Sunflower Cafe

by FallenRaven



Category: Tokyo Ghoul
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Angst, Fluff, M/M, Slow Build, Writer AU, but it wouldn't be Tokyo Ghoul without a little sadness and tragedy, just a tiny bit of
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-26
Updated: 2016-09-10
Packaged: 2018-08-11 03:51:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,233
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7875088
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FallenRaven/pseuds/FallenRaven
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>coffee shop/writer AU where Kaneki's ghoulification is reversed after he gets his eyeballs stabbed by Arima. Kaneki writes under the pen name Sasaki Haise and Hide owns a cafe.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts).



Falling. Falling. Falling. Why did he have to fall so slowly? So painfully slowly. The universe was being awfully cruel, making time slow down so the single expression of deep hurt the falling man had etched onto his face would have to be captured in his mind forever.

If time could slow down, why couldn’t it reverse? Or even fast forward through this moment so he wouldn’t have to really live it. _Because time doesn’t stop_ , someone whispered. _It goes by even if you don’t remember it_. The voice was like a gentle breeze that brushed across his ear. HIs pupils dilated. Blackness spread from the edges of his vision, like dropping dye into water.

And he woke up.

For ten seconds, Kaneki Ken had never felt more relieved in his life. _It was just a dream_. It wasn’t. He quickly realised that he was in a hospital waiting room and it dawned on him that last night’s events were real. He shot up from his seat immediately and the blood rushed to his head, causing him to lose vision and stumble back ungracefully into his seat. Only one thing ran across his mind: _Hide_. Was he alright? Where was he?

A hand gently squeezed his shoulder, and he snapped his head to the right. It was Yuriko, the chef from Sunflower Cafe, Hide’s friend. “Come with me,” she said softly. Her voice was usually gentle, but there was an unfamiliar quietness in the way she spoke that made Kaneki swallow the lump in his throat.

Yuriko led him to a room nearby, occupied by a single bed with the sleeping frame of an orange-haired young man. Kaneki couldn’t bring himself to take a step closer. The tears that glazed his eye threatened to spill over his cheeks. He only managed to pull himself together long enough to listen to Yuriko and Kazuhiko (the new waiter) relay what the doctor had said. Although he tried his best, Kaneki could only process some of the words leaving their mouths. Brain damage...memory loss...fine...remember you…

“Where...where am I?” asked the body lying on the bed, in a breathy voice.

All three of them rushed over to Hide’s bedside. Yuriko immediately cupped her hand around his cheek and asked if he was feeling fine. “Just a little groggy,” Hide replied, his eyes squinting a little as his lips stretched out. The only time she didn’t see her boss with a smile on his face was when he was in deep concentration. She was glad to see Hide still acting like himself.

“I’m so happy that the two of you came to see me,” he said. “But who are you?” he asked, turning his attention to the white-haired stranger standing beside his friends.

Kaneki’s heart cracked a little. Kazuhiko opened his mouth to speak but he was cut of by a stammering Kaneki,”uh...um...I-I’m a friend of Yuriko’s.” He connected the last six syllables into a word before rushing out, face flushed.

“He’s a little shy,” Yuriko explained, dragging Kazuhiko out of the room.

They found Kaneki leaning against the wall next to the water cooler. He wore his hands like a mask. He heard the rain-like pitter patter of their footsteps on the sheet vinyl floor as they approached him - like a scientist approaches a wild animal - quietly, calmly (maybe with a snack).

He lowered his hands to the top of his knees and bowed a little lower. “Please,” Kaneki begged in a low voice. “Please don’t tell Hide about me. I don’t want to hurt him again.” At that point, his voice had gone croaky from fighting back the tears. He looked up at both of them. Their eyes were deep pools of pity (and they had no snacks). Yuriko sighed and it was as if that sigh contained a message Kazuhiko could decipher. They didn’t say anything, but nodded their heads solemnly.

Back at his apartment, hidden under the shadow of towering piles of books that his shelves did not have the room to hold and wrapped up in his blanket, Kaneki closed tear-swollen eyes. He was on a boat, drifting in the ocean of his mind, to five months ago...


	2. chapter 2

At the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France, a young woman wraps her arms around herself because she forgot her coat. A stranger pulls his off and offers it to her.

In a donut shop in Newfoundland, Canada, two 16-year-old girls take a bite of the same donut in the middle of a blizzard. They can’t get home and they don’t want to.

A hopeless romantic climbs a tree in Seoul, South Korea, and ties a hundred ribbons to a hundred branches to profess her love for someone.

In a convenience store in Tokyo, Japan, Hideyoshi Nagachika runs into his long lost best friend for the first time in a long time.

Hide was out for a 3:00am jog to clear his head. Half-baked ideas for new pastries were stuck in his brain and he needed to kick them out. Tossing around in bed was no use so he pulled on his running shoes.

Exercise helped, it helped a lot. It helped when he couldn’t concentrate, when he just needed to stop thinking, when his best friend went missing, when he thought his world was going to fall apart.

He slowed down to a walk as he neared the 7/11. Hide was a grateful to be greeted by a whoosh of cold air when the door opened. The store was air conditioned but beads of sweat were still rolling down the side of his face and his sweat-soaked shirt was stuck to his back.

Hide was standing before a large array of candy-coloured bottles when he felt the air change. It wasn’t because the cashier decided it was to warm and lowered the temperature and it wasn’t because he was very sweaty. When the door rang, signalling that a new customer had entered, Hide felt a familiar presence standing beside him by the fridge. It felt fragile, the slightest breath could easily shatter it like glass. He did not dare to look but his eyes couldn’t resist the urge.

He wanted to laugh at the whole situation. It was really quite hilarious. The supposedly missing Kaneki Ken was standing less than five feet from him. In a convenience store. Buying pudding.

Like bees in a hive, questions began to swarm in Hide’s mind. _Why is he here? Does he remember me? Where was he all this time? Don’t tell me we both live in the same neighbourhood and I’m only seeing him now! Why is he out so late at night? Fate is playing a cruel joke_.

 _I have to test the waters_. Hide stepped closer to him. “Hey, are the sweets here any good?” he asked with a toothy grin, trying to sound friendly and not at all like a creep.

Kaneki was a little startled. People don’t usually walk up to him and ask about things. He’s done a pretty great job at blending into the background his whole life, so why should this time be any different? _Well, I am the only other customer in here_.

“They’re kind of okay,” he said slowly. Social interaction with strangers was not his forte and he could barely look the man in the eyes. “They’re really sweet so they’re good if you lack sugar.”

“This won’t do!” Hide responded, without missing a beat. He snatched the plastic container away from Kaneki and placed it back in the fridge. “Come with me.”

It was obvious that Kaneki had no recollection of him from the way he stepped back back slightly and the way his shoulders slumped forward, trying to crumple into himself. Kaneki would have never done that with Hide. _What happened to him?_ Hide wanted to know but would have to leave it for now.

Hide led Kaneki through the back door of his cafe, into the kitchen. “Are we allowed to be here? Won’t the owner get mad?” Kaneki asked, looking a little worried.

“Of course we are, I’m the owner,” Hide said, with a small laugh as he watched the tiniest tinge of red stain Kaneki’s cheekbones. Adorable.

The moon was full that night, and it shone down into the kitchen through the window, hitting Kaneki’s face with a gentle kind of intensity. His eyes studied his hands which were folded neatly in his lap the way we study the most insignificant things with interest when we are bored. _Nothing which we are to perceive in this world equals the power of your intense fragility_ , Hide recited a line from an E E. Cummings poem in his head because there was no other way to describe the scene before him. Kaneki looked otherworldly. Ethereal. A precious cinnamon roll too good for this world, too pure.

Hide swallowed before setting a plate down in front of him. Kaneki dug in.


	3. Chapter 3

Electric. What other way was there to describe it? Impulsive? Stupid? That’s how it felt for the first two seconds when Hide lunged at Kaneki and pressed their lips together. He didn’t plan on it, but electricity jump-started his muscles and before he knew it, he had sandwiched Kaneki between himself and the counter.

The kiss was hard at first, with a lip-smacking, teeth-clashing kind of pain; then there was warmth, enough to melt their bones, enough to melt away the uncomfortable start. But the cold of the metal countertop shot through Kaneki’s palms and brought him back to reality. As much as he enjoyed it, he had to stop. But he didn’t want it to stop. But it had to. _Only for five more seconds_ , he promised himself. _Okay, another two more - wait! I have to stop this!_

Kaneki pulled away from Hide’s hold and sprinted out the backdoor. After all, he had only just met that man and he didn’t even know his name.

Meanwhile, Hide stood silently in the darkness of the kitchen. He kicked himself for doing something so reckless. It was highly likely that Kaneki would take measures to avoid him at all costs. What if he never sees him again? He should have ran after him and at least made up some bullshit excuse like he tripped and fell or something, but he didn’t, and it was already too late to regret anything. 

Hide cleaned up the kitchen and headed back home. There was nothing he could do anyway.

+

His breathing was ragged when he reached the door of his apartment. Full out sprinting a whole 600 metres was not a good idea, especially when the last time he actually exercised was in high school. Kaneki pulled off his sweat-drenched clothes in exchange for comfy pyjamas and settled into his chair.

He needed to breathe. He needed to take his mind off things. He drew out a long exhale, breathing out the shock of what happened minutes ago as his computer screen lit up. He couldn’t be Kaneki Ken right now, not after what just happened. But he could be Sasaki Haise.

Sasaki Haise was a name he created for himself from his favourite kanji characters when he woke up from his coma. He figured if being Kaneki Ken was so bad that his mind had to repress a lot of memories, why not become someone else?

It was just for fun, really. Writing helped him sort out his thoughts and feelings. He had control. It was therapeutic. Just to see if it would get any response, he handed a manuscript over to a local publishing house as Sasaki Haise. The result was far from what he had expected. His writing was good enough to get him an honourable mention in a national literature magazine. Haise’s audience grew with each book and he felt...well, extremely happy (because Lord knows he needs the positive opinions of other people to feel validated), but also pressure to come up with better and better works each time.

The story this time was about the life of this person seen through binoculars from the house across the street. The man being watched is considered an eccentric around the neighbourhood. He rarely leaves his home, never talks and every autumn he spends all day sitting on a swing in his yard facing the woods. No one knows why. The person behind the binoculars is a young boy who has an overprotective but unsympathetic mother, trying to escape the reality of his life in a dark room by watching the old man across the street.

Haise was blocked mid sentence which was one of the most irritating things that could happen while writing. Getting a block when you need a plot twist or the start of a new paragraph was one thing for him, but getting trapped mid sentence was a complete nightmare. He couldn’t stand it at all. All he could do was walk away from his computer screen to clear his head. The only problem was writing was his tactic for clearing his head. Great.

The only thing he could think to do now was tuck himself into bed and hope that sleep would wash over him. Surprisingly, it did. Kaneki didn’t realise how tired he was until he wrapped himself up in a warm blanket. Today was quite emotionally exhausting.


End file.
